Back in 2016, I met up with an old friend in Orange County for a breakfast burrito. I was wearing a Black Lives Matter button on my hoodie. He was obviously disturbed by it - and he told me so. He said, “When you say ‘Black Lives Matter,’ it means that white lives don’t.” I’ve heard a lot of white folks say the same thing since. Over the past few months, some of the same people have extended this peculiar moral logic, saying that social media posts advocating for a free Palestine are antisemitic. They claim that chanting “From the River to the Sea” means that I want to wipe the state of Israel and Jewish people off the map.
Our world is divided over different ways we define “power.” Leaders of liberation struggles are not interested in obtaining the kind of power that has been used against them, that has been used to put other people in their place, or to violently force someone else into submission. They are fueled by an empowerment framework. They want a world where power is equally distributed. Where decisions are made for the dignity and well-being of everyone. Where the common welfare comes first, as we say in my 12-step program. Only this kind of power leads to collective liberation. Our only hope for survival on this planet.
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